A Minneapolis Family's Excellent Adventures in Bangalore, India and Beyond...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

In the Air!!!

I (Bob - Blog #2 this year) just spent a majority of the last 48 hours gaining our prized Visa Extensions from the Indian Government. If there is a system more messed up on this planet, I want to see it. Three FRO visits, one in which I practically begged the commissioner to except the faxed copy (He Didn't- the guy has a doorbell on his desk to summon people into his office even though the distance is about two feet) When I explained that my family was flying tomorrow and that we needed the extensions to leave the country, he looked back at me and said "plenty of time, you get the original and I can have it all done in five minutes." When I arrived at the FRO today after the paperwork was "found" at the courier's office after an hour, the commissioner made me wait for 20 minutes before "ringing" me in. When all was said and done, I spent almost two hours at the FRO instead of five minutes. We started the entire process over a month ago and with the help of a service were able to acquire our extensions with four hours to spare. I left the FRO at 2 pm (flight at 6:30 and I am still 45 minutes from home and home is then 1.5 hours from the airport) I buckled up and told Raju to get home as quickly as possible. That statment is his excuse to drive as fast and recklessly as humanly possible. Oncoming traffic does not faze him, about the only thing he does not do is jump the sidewalk.

Everyone keep Chandra in your thoughts for the next 30 hours or so as she travels half way round the world with two energetic kids to entertain in coach. We did book our flights on Emirates which has personal movie screens and every Disney movie ever made so hopefully the flights are OK. It is the two 5 hour layovers (Dubai and JFK) that may have her cursing me.

While Chandra has that adventure, I am leaving in about 11 hours for Northern India to explore Darjiling and Sikkim. I'll figure out how to post pictures when I return

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"You're moving *where* ?"

Generally, people fall into two camps when it comes to a move across continents. Either they wish they could join you (and subsequently promise to visit) or they think you've lost your mind (and with kids tagging along that is especially true). What ever your thoughts, we invite you to join our family as we journey off to India in search of new career opportunities, travel adventures, the experience of living in a foreign culture and a (hopefully) better understanding of what it means to be a human being on our rapidly shrinking planet.